Max Lucado Daily: Heaven Knows Your Heart
“Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.” Luke 12:15, The Message
Who you are has nothing to do with the clothes you wear or the car you drive . . . Heaven does not know you as the fellow with the nice suit or the woman with the big house or the kid with the new bike. Heaven knows your heart . . .
When God thinks of you, he may see your compassion, your devotion, your tenderness or quick mind, but he doesn’t think of your things . . . And when you think of you, you shouldn’t either.
Luke 20
The Authority of Jesus Questioned
1 One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. 2 “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?”
3 He replied, “I will also ask you a question. Tell me: 4 John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin?”
5 They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ 6 But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.”
7 So they answered, “We don’t know where it was from.”
8 Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
The Parable of the Tenants
9 He went on to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. 10 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. 12 He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.
13 “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’
14 “But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”
When the people heard this, they said, “God forbid!”
17 Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone’[a]?
18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
19 The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.
Paying Taxes to Caesar
20 Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. 21 So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22 Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
23 He saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
25 He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
26 They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Matthew 5:14-16; 1 Peter 2:9-10
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
1 Peter 2:9-10
New International Version (NIV)
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Shine On!
October 6, 2011 — by Cindy Hess Kasper
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. —Matthew 5:16
I was frustrated that despite my repeated calls, the streetlight in front of my house was still out. Because we don’t have sidewalks and there is such a large distance between the streetlights, it’s important that each light is functional to illuminate the darkness. I worried that I might hit one of the school kids as I pulled out of my driveway in the early morning hours.
The idea of light is used frequently in the Bible. Jesus said that He is the Light of the world (John 9:5). We are told to “put on the armor of light” by clothing ourselves with the Lord (Rom. 13:12-14). And Matthew 5:16 instructs that we should “let [our] light so shine before men, that they may see [our] good works and glorify [our] Father in heaven.”
A light that doesn’t shine has lost its usefulness. Jesus said that no one hides a light under a basket but puts it on a lampstand to illuminate everything around it (Matt. 5:15). Our light (our actions) should point people to the One who is the Light. We don’t have any light in ourselves, but we shine with the reflection of Christ (Eph. 5:8).
God has placed each of us in a specific environment that will best allow us to shine with His light. Don’t be like a burned-out streetlight. Shine on!
Lord, help us always put You first
In everything we say and do
So that Your light will shine through us
And show the world their need of You. —Sper
Whether you’re a candle in a corner
or a beacon on a hill, let your light shine.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 6th, 2011
The Nature of Regeneration
When it pleased God . . . to reveal His Son in me . . . —Galatians 1:15-16
If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this— I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His own heredity of holiness into me, then I can begin to see what He means when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into anyone the hereditary nature that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives us are based on that nature— His teaching is meant to be applied to the life which He puts within us. The proper action on my part is simply to agree with God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ.
The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a person is hit by his own sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God— “. . . until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put a new nature into me through which I can live a totally new life. When I finally reach the edge of my need and know my own limitations, then Jesus says, “Blessed are you . . .” (Matthew 5:11). But I must get to that point. God cannot put into me, the responsible moral person that I am, the nature that was in Jesus Christ unless I am aware of my need for it.
Just as the nature of sin entered into the human race through one man, the Holy Spirit entered into the human race through another Man (see Romans 5:12-19). And redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin, and that through Jesus Christ I can receive a pure and spotless heredity, namely, the Holy Spirit.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Shark Syndrome - #6454
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Over the last years, there's been a series of movies that kind of made one four-letter word come to strike terror in the human heart. Just think how you feel when I say this word--Jaws.
Well, it's not the kind that involves an orthodontist; it's not that. If you've been around much in recent years, you know it's the jaws of that terrorist of the sea--the shark! Now, I hate to be critical, but these are pretty nasty fellows. And consider what attracts a shark--blood. Isn't that nice? When someone's wounded, they move in for the kill. Where there's bleeding, there are sharks. But they're not all in the ocean.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Shark Syndrome."
Today we're talking about wounds; about people who hurt you; about tense relationships and some healing wisdom from the Scriptures. Proverbs 17:9, our Word for today from the Word of God, has some really down-home wisdom. Listen to this: "He who covers an offense promotes love. But whoever repeats the matter separates close friends." You say, "Whoa, whoa! Where was that? I didn't know it was going to be that good." Yeah, it's Proverbs 17:9 and it talks about two approaches when there's a wound.
One is to repeat the matter. The other is to cover the offense. Now, in shark talk, you can pounce on the offense, or you can swim on by. Depending on which one you do, there are two outcomes. If you pounce on that hurt, you pounce on that wound, that problem, that hurt that's been inflicted on you, well then; it says there will be separated friends. If you choose to overlook it, it talks about love being promoted. And it all depends on whether you want to be an over-looker or a score keeper.
You see, if you love someone, you can swim by all kinds of hurts and problems. You say, "Well, yeah, but I love him. I can forget it." If you don't love someone, you don't forget anything they do wrong. You're a list keeper, you're a score keeper. You've got a black list, and it's in indelible ink. You remember and you replay every infraction. And you know what? That's how marriages get torn down, that's how parents and children come apart, that's how friendships are ruined, that's how working relationships end up being enemies.
Christ's love is not just some sticky, sweet emotional syrupy thing. It's really practical. Without it, we become selective recorders, recording the data that proves that a person is as bad as we said--recording the wounds. But real love? Well, it lets all kinds of hurts go. And if you let it go, it won't grow. If you don't let it go, it will grow, and it will grow into that root of bitterness the Bible says that "will defile many and cause trouble" (Hebrews 12:15).
Now, there might be a relationship of yours right now that is suffering from your, uh...shall we say overly-efficient memory. You've been remembering, storing it up, adding up offenses, keeping score, attacking where there's a wound. Here's a good prayer for today, "Dear Lord, help me. Teach me to be an over-looker." Don't add up the hurts and the wounds and pounce on them. Let it go! Who needs any more sharks anyway? Swim on by.